Are you happy now, Mr. Limbaugh?

In the months since Obama took office, you’ve made it clear that you’ve got the Republican Party by the, uh… tea bags.

Since January, you have received apologies from RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC), Republican Congressional candidate Jim Tedisco, and Congressman Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) after they publicly denounced you on separate occasions. In response to Steele’s apology, Republican rising star and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was pleased, adding that “I think Rush is a leader for many conservatives.”

This is today’s Republican Party. The party that Sen. Arlen Specter just left. The Pennsylvania senator is now affiliated with the Democratic Party, ending a 43-year Republican allegiance — 29 years of which took place in the U.S. Senate.

Gone is the focus on traditional Republican values like fiscal conservatism, small government, and personal freedom. Today’s GOP is increasingly marginalized and is in grave danger of becoming the Limbaugh Party — a party driven by the Religious Right’s fundamentalist-Christian-rooted, anti-gay, nationalistic, anti-science policies. Policies pushed with fearmongering tactics and accusations of fascism and terrorism for those who oppose them.

The Limbaugh Republicans are the ones who flocked to the April 15 “Tax Day Tea Parties” with signs that read “Obama’s Plan: White Slavery,” calling the president a “fascist.”

Here’s what’s going on. Specter will undoubtedly be criticized for making a political move in the days to come; for abandoning his party to serve personal interests. But the truth is, Specter did not abandon his party. His party abandoned him.

Specter was elected in 1980 when the Republican Party held the Big Tent ideology of the Reagan years. Specter, who was one of few moderate Republicans in the Senate, watched the party push further and further to the right to the point where his ideals no longer aligned with the tenets and practices of the GOP. He noted in his statement that last year, over 200,000 Pennsylvania Republicans changed their registration and became Democrats. Defending the reasons for his decision, Specter said, “I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.”

And it turns out the people of Pennsylvania are not the only ones shying away from Republican affiliations. According to an ABC News-Washington Post poll released on April 26, only 21 percent of Americans identify themselves as Republicans. Specter is not alone in his disillusionment and dwindling faith in the party.

Former Bush adviser David Frum said in response to Specter’s decision, “The Specter defection is too severe a catastrophe to qualify as a ‘wake-up call.’ His defection is the thing we needed the wake-up call to warn us against! For a long time, the loudest and most powerful voices in the conservative world have told us that people like Specter aren’t real Republicans … Now he’s gone, and with him the last Republican leverage within any of the elected branches of government.”

Frum is right. Now that the “R” following Specter’s name has become a “D,” the Democrats control 59 Senate seats. When the mess in Minnesota has finally settled down and Al Franken is seated, the Democrats will have the magic number: 60. However, although 60 is the number needed to invoke cloture, or create a filibuster-proof, debate-ending majority, 60 Democrats in the Senate does not necessarily guarantee 60 Democrats voting the same way on an issue. In his statement, Specter made it clear that he will not be a party-line voter as a Democrat any more than he was as a Republican, noting that his opposition to the Employees Free Choice Act will not change. He added that “I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture,” and “I will continue my independent voting and follow my conscience on what I think is best for Pennsylvania and America.” Essentially, where there was once an independent-voting, moderate Republican, there is now an independent-voting, moderate Democrat.

What do Democrats think? Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) said, “We will welcome him with open arms.” So far, this has proven true. Seven minutes after receiving the news, President Obama called Specter and told him “You have my full support,” adding that the Democrats are “thrilled to have you.” In addition, Vice President Joe Biden was reported to have led the effort to convince Specter to make the party change. Not surprisingly, things have been a little different on the Republican side of the aisle.

Sen. Olympia Snowe — who, along with fellow Maine Republican Susan Collins, is one of a shrinking number of moderate Republicans in the Senate — has spoken of a polarization within the Republican Party, describing a mentality coming from the national level of “either you are with us or against us.” In an April 28 New York Times article, she said national Republican leaders do not grasp that “political diversity makes a party stronger and ultimately we are heading to having the smallest political tent in history for any political party the way things are unfolding.”

Despite past approaches from Democrats encouraging Snowe to switch parties, she’s not going anywhere for now. However, her allegiance to basic Republican tenets is accompanied by this quote from a Huffington Post article: “I haven’t abandoned those principles that have been the essence of the Republican Party. I think the Republican Party has abandoned those principles.”

Snowe is a Republican for what the party used to be. Not for the abrasive, marginalizing Limbaugh values it embraces today.

Limbaugh, of course, couldn’t keep his mouth shut in the presence of something this huge. “Take McCain and his daughter with you,” he said on his talk show Tuesday morning.

Great idea, Rush. Alienate some more key players from the Republican Party. It’s not like you need them. If they have any sense, all the sane Republicans will abandon the current methods of the party and go back to the reasons people like Sen. Snowe and Specter joined the GOP.

And Mr. Limbaugh? You’ll be left with your Dittohead Republicans.

At least you’ll have tea bags to console yourselves.

 — Jessica Opoien is a freshman in pre-journalism and mass communication from Marinette, Wisconsin.